The northwest plains are sweltering under intense heat, which is expected to continue till Saturday. Thereafter moist winds, dust storm and rain will calm things down a little. This is the longest spell of hot weather in northwest plains. Maximum temperatures have been sustaining for more than five days now.
Amritsar in Punjab which was observing day temperatures around 29°C during the latter part of April, is now boiling at 41.8°C, five notches above normal. Similarly, above normal temperatures were also recorded in Jammu, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Hisar, Karnal, Agra, Jaipur and Kota. Heat wave continues to remain strong in western Rajasthan, where Barmer, Churu and Ganganagar witnessed temperatures in excess of 44°C.
The temperature in Lucknow in central Uttar Pradesh was no different as maximum settled four notches above normal at 43.3°C. Allahabad and Varanasi recorded a maximum temperature of 45.1°C and 44.2°C respectively.
Conditions improved slightly in Patna in Bihar compared to what it was on Tuesday. Cut off of dry and hot winds and reach of moist winds from the Bay of Bengal under the influence of a cyclonic circulation over West Bengal lead to the conditions improving in the city. According to the latest weather update by Skymet Meteorology Division in India, respite for these regions is expected from tomorrow as moist winds will be able to absorb the extra heat.
The weather in Central India remained mainly dry over Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh but it is expected that conditions will be favourable for some rain due to friction between land and sea winds over Chhattisgarh and parts of east Madhya Pradesh during the next 48 hours.
In southern peninsula, pre-monsoon rain would continue to occur in Kerala and south interior Kartnaka. Some rain will also be recorded in Tamil Nadu.
Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and some of the other northeastern states will be witnessing increase in rainfall during the next 48 hours. A cyclonic circulation over Assam will be facilitating southerly to southwesterly winds from the Bay of Bengal to the region.
A research group of Noah Diffenbaugh and Deepti Singh of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Bala Rajaratnam, assistant professor of statistics and environmental earth system science has revealed changes in rainfall pattern during Monsoon in India in recent decades. These changes could have major implications on agriculture and water resource management in the country.
The researchers have compared peak monsoon rainfall patterns during two time periods: from 1951 to 1980, and from 1981 to 2011. The team looked specifically at rainfall during the months of July and August, which is the peak of the Southwest monsoon in India. The analysis focused on central India, which is the core of the monsoon region and has extremely high population densities. Here are some facts from the study:
Increase in frequency of extreme wet and dry spells during Monsoon in India
The study reveals that the intensity of extremely wet spells and the number of extremely dry spells during the South Asian monsoon season have both been increasing in recent decades.
Increase in intensity of wet spells and dry spells
The paper reveals that the intensity of rainfall during wet spells between 1981-2011 was significantly higher than 1950-1980. At the same time, dry spells had become 27 per cent more frequent during the latter period, which had twice as many years with three or more dry spells as the former.
Decline in average total monsoon rain
It has been discovered that although the average total rainfall during the monsoon season has declined, the variability of rainfall during the peak monsoon months has increased. In particular, the researchers observed increases in the intensity of wet spells and in the frequency of dry spells.
Change in atmosphere
The team also found changes in the atmosphere – such as winds and moisture –that are likely to be responsible for the changes in wet and dry spells. Diffenbaugh, also an associate professor of environmental Earth system science said that the next step is to investigate what might be causing the changes in the atmosphere.
These revelations have been published in the 28th April issue of the journal Nature Climate Change and are the result of a new collaboration between climate scientists and statisticians that focused on utilizing statistical methods for analyzing rare geophysical events.
Photograph by Stanford School of Earth Sciences
According to the latest weather update by Skymet Meteorology Division in India, the week long hot spell in Delhi since 25th April is expected to change and witness a period of moist winds, dust storms and possibility of rain on Saturday.
On Wednesday, the heat further tightened its grip on Delhiites and people across the national capital region as day temperature rose to record 42.1°C at the Safdarjung Observatory, while the other Observatory at Palam recorded 44°C making Delhi one of the hottest places in the country. Several parts of Delhi experienced power cuts of up to 2 hours during the day due to soaring energy demand. On Tuesday, the power demand in Delhi was reported to be 4121 MW.
According to the latest weather update by Skymet Meteorology Division in India, the maximum temperature will continue to hover around 42°C on Thursday and Friday. Saturday may observe a drop in day temperature in Delhi as winds from the Arabian Sea will be reaching the northwest plains under the influence of a cyclonic circulation. The weather system currently lies in Pakistan and adjoining areas of west Rajasthan.
The table shows maximum temperatures in Delhi for last five days and a rise of four degrees since Saturday last week.
| Days | Maximum temperature |
| Saturday | 38.8°C |
| Sunday | 38.7°C |
| Monday | 39.5°C |
| Tuesday | 41°C |
| Wednesday | 42.3 |
Minimums too have been increasing. Thursday morning was the warmest of the season as the minimum temperature was recorded at 24.2°C. The table shows the rise in morning temperature since Tuesday and a jump of three notches since Sunday.
| Days | Minimum temperature |
| Sunday | 21.5°C |
| Monday | 21°C |
| Tuesday | 22.6°C |
| Wednesday | 22.8°C |
| Thursday | 24.2°C |
Amidst the political hullabaloo, there is one thing that is missing government attention .i.e. water crisis being reported from different parts of the country. From Imphal in Manipur to Bangalore in South India and from Kendrapara in Odisha to Panvel in Maharashtra all the cities have been feeling the heat due to lack of water as ever increasing summer heat has rapidly depleted the major sources of drinking water such as dams and rivers. Here are few states that have been in news in past one week due to water crisis.
Karnataka
According to a report published in the Times of India, the state's reservoirs have depleted. 93% of lakes and tanks have dried up. The nearly empty reservoirs signal a grave situation not only for drinking water and irrigation, but also for power generation. Sources say that about 60% of the energy generated in the state comes from hdyel power projects. Experts blame inadequate rainfall in the past three years for poor groundwater situation.
Tamil Nadu
Madurai district in Tamil Nadu is facing one of its worst summers and according to Public Works Department of the state, the drinking water storage in Vaigai dam may not last beyond May 5. The Vaigai dam is the major source of drinking water for Madurai. Till last Sunday, water level at Vaigai dam stood at 23.46 ft with a storage of 171 mcft. With evaporation loss estimated at 5 mcft per day, water level will not last for drinking water supply beyond May 5, a report published in the Times of India said
Odisha
Acute water shortage plagues about 48 seaside villages, with a population of around two lakh, in Mahakalapada and Rajnagar blocks of Kendrapara distric in Odisha. Many of them walk for several miles in the heat to fetch fresh water from faraway villages. Villagers of Ramanagar, Suniti, Kharinasi, Kajalapatia, Pentha, Bagabatia, Jamboo, Baulakani, Bahakuda and Kansarbadadandua villages said they are facing severe drinking water crisis and the problem has worsened with the onset of summer.
Manipur
Water levels in Singda dam, Imphal and Iril rivers, which provide drinking water to the state capital after being routed through several treatment plants, have drastically decreased, compelling the state public health engineering department (PHED) to cut down on the normal supply rate of drinking water.
Maharashtra
The water level in Dehrang dam which supply drinking water to Panvel has touched an alarming low and this might lead to a serious drinking water crisis in the next few days. "We have limited stock of water in Dehrang dam, just enough for seven days. So, we are planning to buy more water from Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran to ensure uninterrupted supply" said PMC chairperson Charushila Gharat to the Times of India. The municipal council supplies about 26 MLD (million litres per day) water to the city to meet the demand of over two lakh residents, of which 12 MLD water comes from Dehrang dam.
Photograph by Tom Maisey
In the 2014-15 marketing year,Zimbabwe’s sugar cane output is projected to drop by three per cent to 3.8 million metric tons (MMT), due to a 12 per cent drop in area harvested. In the 2013-14 marketing year,Zimbabweharvested 3.9 MMT of sugarcane on 46605 hectares, marginally less than the 4.0 MMT on 53486 hectares.
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